Location: Meat Safety and Quality
Project Number: 3040-42000-021-007-T
Project Type: Trust Fund Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jun 1, 2022
End Date: Dec 31, 2023
Objective:
Determine the influence of the direct-fed microbial Probicon on swine performance, morbidty and mortality throughout the feeding period. Detect, quantify and isolate Salmonella from the feces of market hogs fed a control diet and a diet including Probicon. Detect, quantify and isolate Salmonella from lymph nodes collected at harvest.
Approach:
Two groups of market hogs will be enrolled in the study, with 360 market hogs in each group, for a total of 720 market hogs on trial. A total of 36 pens will be used for each group of market hogs, with 12 pens per treatment (10 market hogs per pen), and pen serving as the experimental unit. Thus, there will be 24 total pens per treatment. One of three treatments will be randomly assigned to each pen: control (standard finishing diet), finishing diet supplemented with Bioplus® 2B (the probiotic currently used in swine), and a finishing diet supplemented with Probicon. Market hogs will be enrolled in the study at 60-80 lbs and will remain on trial until ~280 lbs. Feces will be collected at, or prior to, loadout, and market hogs will be followed to the abattoir, where mesenteric lymph nodes will be collected. Salmonella will be detected, enumerated, isolated and characterized from these fecal and lymph node samples.
